FAQ
Including the ones that don't flatter us.
If an answer here is evasive, that's a bug. Write in and say so.
The person you care for
Does my parent need to create an account?
No. There's no email address, no password and no sign-in screen on their side. You pair their phone to the circle once by showing them a code on your screen, and after that it just shows their day.
What if they aren't good with phones?
That's the case the senior side was designed for. There's one screen. It doesn't scroll into anything complicated, there are no gestures, nothing is hidden behind a menu, and there's nothing they can tap that changes anything.
Could they accidentally delete an appointment?
No, and not because the buttons are hidden. Their account is granted read access at the database, so the server would refuse the change even if something went wrong in the app.
My mother doesn't read English.
Marlow speaks English, Spanish, Chinese, Hindi and French. You can organize in English while her phone shows everything in her own language. Names, places and anything you typed pass through untranslated, because those are hers, not ours.
What if they don't have a smartphone?
Then Marlow isn't ready for you yet. We've designed the text-message and phone-call side for parents without a smartphone, but it isn't built, and we're not going to pretend it is.
The circle
How many people can be in a circle?
As many as help. Circle size will never be a paid feature. Charging for the fourth sibling would mean charging to include somebody, and that's the one thing a caregiving app must not do.
Can everybody edit, or just me?
Everybody in the circle can add appointments and claim rides. Organizers additionally control membership and your parent’s settings. A circle where only one person can change anything is the group chat again with extra steps.
Does Marlow check the drivers?
No, and it never claims to. The drivers are the people you invited: your brother, a neighbor, a family friend. Marlow isn't a care agency and doesn't vet, insure or background-check anybody. Who joins your circle is your judgment.
What happens if nobody claims a ride?
It stays visibly marked as needing a driver and the circle gets nudged as the date approaches. Your parent is never told that nobody's volunteered. They're told their ride is being arranged, which is true and isn't theirs to solve.
Trust and limits
Is Marlow a medical device or a safety system?
Neither, and this is written into the terms rather than buried. It coordinates people who already trust each other. Notifications are delivered by Apple and nobody guarantees them, so nothing about somebody’s health should depend on a phone buzzing.
Do you sell or share our data?
No. No analytics, no crash reporter, no trackers, no advertising, no location tracking, and nothing sold to anybody, ever. The full version of that promise is on our privacy page.
Is our information used to train AI?
No. Marlow doesn't send anything to a language model today. If that changes it'll be announced before it ships, it'll run on a server rather than in the app, and it won't be switched on quietly.
Can I get our data out, or delete it?
Yes to both. Ask and you get it in a readable form; delete a circle and its contents go with it. It's meant to be easy to leave.
Practical
What does it cost?
The everyday app is free, permanently. No card, no trial clock, no expiry. Plus is $6.99 a month, optional and billed through the App Store, so there is never a card on file with us. Never for access, and never for the size of your family.
Is there an Android version?
It's built and it runs, but it's not released yet. Marlow is iPhone today, so you and your parent both need iPhones. Android was always a deliberate next step rather than a quiet omission, and it's closer to being the next thing than to being a maybe.
Who's building this?
One person. An email to support reaches him directly, which is both the appeal and the limitation of a product at this stage.
Something not answered here?
support@getmarlow.app reaches a person, not a ticket queue.